Susanna Andersson, Soprano

Susanna Andersson’s flexible and lyric coloratura soprano has taken her to some of the most prestigious stages in the world, from the BBC Proms and the Aldeburgh Festival to the Royal Swedish Opera and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. She is rapidly establishing herself as a leading force among Sweden’s younger generation of opera singers.

Susanna made her professional debut as Zerlina (Don Giovanni) at Grange Park Opera in the UK and has since been engaged by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Opera North, English National Opera, Danish National Opera, the Royal Swedish Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the New Turku Opera, Nürnberg Opera, the Gothenburg Opera and Opera Leipzig, where she was a company member from 2007-9.

Among Susanna’s roles are staples of the operatic repertoire, including Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Musetta (La Bohème), the Queen of the Night and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Violetta (La Traviata), Adina (L’Elisir d’amore), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Blondchen (Die Entführung as dem Serail), Servilia (La Clemenza di Tito) and Lisette (La Rondine).

An interest in contemporary music has led Susanna to collaborate with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (George Benjamin’s Into The Little Hill), the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Oliver Knussen’s Higgelty Piggelty Pop! at the Barbican Centre and Aldeburgh Festival) and the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra (first performance of Albert Schnelzer’s Animal Songs, written for her). She appeared in the world premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s opera Die Eroberung von Mexico at the Salzburg Festival and in Cologne, and took the roles of Venus and Gepopo in the iconic La Fura del Baus production of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, seen at English National Opera, the Adelaide Festival and at the Teatro Colon.

As a concert soloist Susanna has appeared with some of the most distinguished orchestras in Europe including the Royal Stockholm, Helsinki, Turku and Graz Philharmonic Orchestras, the Malmö and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestras, the Nordic and English Chamber Orchestras and the BBC and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras. In 2008 she made her BBC Proms debut singing the world premiere of Stuart Macrae’s Gaudete, another piece written for her. She has worked with conductors including Christopher Hogwood, Lawrence Foster, Roy Goodman, Andrew Manze, Ingo Metzmacher, Edward Gardner, Baldur Brönnimann, George Benjamin, John Storgårds and Leo Hussain.

Susanna was born in the Swedish city of Östersund and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where she won the Gold Medal, the highest award for a student at the college. She later won the coveted Song Prize at the annual Kathleen Ferrier Awards. Susanna participated in the ECHO Rising Stars scheme, which led her to give recitals with pianist Eugene Asti in a string of European capitals and in New York. She was guest artist at the 2004 Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm and at the 2008 Polar Music Prize Ceremony.